Today was pathetic - at least we have some nice places to go to next season and our wonderful Club will never be in the top flight again because of the wealthy @#$%& who have control of the Aviva Premiershipl

Sadly you may be right. If we do go down again, I imagine we'll lose many (most?) of our current 1st Squad AND potentially the best of our academy players. This would leave LI in a serious situation where we would have to try and tempt players from other Championship clubs and of course, the top players will already have secure contracts. If that happened then we'd be scratching around for a competitive squad for 2018/19. Potentially we could therefore end up below the top two or three and miles away from promotion (if that's even still available). This would surely make remaining at the Madstad financially untenable and maybe even also kill a move to Brentford. What then? Am I being overly pessimistic? I hope so.

I think we can survive a year in the championship again, but it will take some very good man management and a slice of good fortune.
1. Trim the squad and lose the big earners, I’d look to get about 1.5 million off the wage bill. We’re already losing franks and Lewington, I’d release Marshall and Nalaga if it was possible. Both a waste in that league. There are others who would probably be able to find new clubs, Reid and the prop that has yet to feature. That’s probably about 200k. Definitely lose McLean and Hearn, the two most pedestrian centres to wear the shirt.
2. Ensure contracts are signed before we go down so we secure our core of youth. This is where Nic will earn his cash, he managed these guys basically the entire way to this level, he needs to convince them to stay. Those guys will flourish in the championship I think. They’ve already played in that league (most of them) and the others have enough experience of Euro and LV rugby to be comfortable at that level.
3. Identify what the best 22 are and utilise what they have. We have very good backs coming through, we just need a backs coach to make it happen. We’ve seen enough evidence to see that Hodgson is just incapable of doing a job for us.
4. Some of the older guys like Van De Merwe would be great to steer us through another year of relegation, just like robson was.
5. It’s not as long a slog in the championship now with the automatic promotion, this would ideally make recruitment easier if we were to comeback up again.

We’d need to buck the trend of poorly managing most of the situations we find ourselves in but it can have a positive outcome.

We need a DOR who has experience managing a team with smaller bank account than than most in the Premiership, I am embarrased seeing how poor we are, to lose busting a gut is appreciated and always so, cant give then I applaud...but to lose playing clueless, no idea rugby , pathetic press releases that are far removed from the game, well, we deserve to be outside the premiership, we are the whipping boys in the footsteps on London Welsh.

Bristol fan in peace here. You're going to be up against a very strong and well drilled Ealing team too, though I suspect they'll be losing a few of their best players at the end of the season to prem clubs.

I guess a fair few of your best players that stayed with you for one drop into the championship may be less willing to do it a second time. Best of luck for the rest of the season anyway

I can't see any way we can stay up after the performance against Sale. Nobody has mentioned the additional factor of loss of supporters. We get an awful turn out now, I'm in the West Stand and looking at the East Stand on Saturday was, quite frankly, depressing, there was hardly anyone there!
After following Irish through thick & thin since they moved to The MadStad, when they get relegated, if they also move to Brentford, I'm afraid that will be too much for me. The rugby is dire and boring to watch, so I can't think of any reason to trek down the M4 to Brentford to watch them.
Despite the folk with rainbow glasses on here who think that returning to London is the answer to all ills, Irish won't have an increase in supporters, not enough to make them viable anyway. Loss of players + loss of matchday income = Disaster.....
I really hope I'm wrong, btw..

I know several STH who did not attend on Saturday because they had made other arrangements as the game was originally scheduled for Sunday. They, like me, put all the fixtures in a calendar when they are announced and do not always see the change of day as was mentioned on this board last week. How many other regulars were caught out by the day change?

Another "optimistic" query....If we go down and the much muted RFU "buddy system" is actually set up, then who do you think we'd become a Championship Feeder click b for ??...... Quin's most likely! (Unless they chose Ealing over us!)...

Last weekend our attendance was put at 4457 but in reality it was much less than that as they automatically count all season ticket holders as attending, in the East Stand there were a large number of ST holders missing (watching the internationals?)and there were a surprising number of Sale supporters there as well. The West Stand also looked sparsely populated so I doubt the crowd was actually much above 3000?.
If / when we go down I think there will be a number of long term ST holders who will not renew, being just in the West Stand as last season was pretty soulless and it’s not even certain we will still be at the Madjeski?. With crowds like that and no obvious additional investment coming into the club our future does not look rosy.

orsoncartWould anyone seriously argue that on the strength of the last five years, we are, realistically, a Championship side with Championship levels of support and revenue?

Apologies for quoting myself, but just wanted to add that if LI accepted this, and developed a business plan with that as the scenario, it would probably be a whole lot more enjoyable and achievable than these frustrated aspirations of being a mid table premier side. i certainly enjoyed last season far more than any premier season for years.

That said, you have to have a ground solution. Reading is knackered IMHO, the faffing about over Brentford, the feeling of undervaluing the non West London fan base and the poor entertainment this season have probably done terminal damage to a chunk of the Berkshire support

It's only doom and gloom if you think we are a mid table premier team, otherwise it's a golden opportunity to enjoy a new, young team with no baggage, playing some real running rugby

For some reason I can't quote your message orsoncart. However I think you pretty much sum up our real place in things at the moment. However, whilst relegation and promotion still exists then there's always a possibility we could bob back up....and straight down again (or maybe alternate the with one or two other vulnerable clubs such as Leeds). Major funds injection would be the only way to attempt anything like a mid table return to the Premiership...and then ongoing and significant revenue growth. IMO the jury's still out on the potential for a Brentford move to achieve that.
It's not the first time I've wondered if there really is a future at professional level for the old London-Exiles linked clubs rather than clubs with a solid "local town" linkage...(now I'll duck for cover!)

I think we should ask to share with sarries for a season to see how we get on nearer to London. If I was Mick, id offer to pay for The Stoop to have a 3G pitch installed and try a groundshare with them again.

Orsoncart,you imho are about right in your thoughts about a future for the club. Sheik Paddy Maktoum is not about to invest,and the cloth needs to be cut back to grade 1 denim. Get the playing and coaching staff down to bare bones,and start borrowing players from Barf and Quins to make up the numbers.This effectively will mean we have to integrate our home grown players which promotes a club ethos and empathy with the fans.Lets bobble about in the Championship for a year or three, without loosing £2.5 m a year. Can't help thinking that the product will taste a lot better for it.
So that's sorted, now where's the 6000 capacity stadium we,re gonna play in.

We record all IP addresses on the Sportnetwork message boards which may be required by the authorities in case of defamatory or abusive comment.
We seek to monitor the Message Boards at regular intervals.
We do not associate Sportnetwork with any of the comments and do not take responsibility for any statements or opinions expressed on the Message Boards.
If you have any cause for concern over any material posted here please let us know as soon as possible by e-mailing
abuse@sportnetwork.net